Fall sports finalists revealed at first Semoball Awards selection show

More than 50 fall sports high school athletes from Southeast Missouri were announced as finalists at the first Semoball Awards selection show on Saturday at Dexter Bar-B-Que in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

The finalists for eight fall sports awards -- football offense, football defense, volleyball, boys soccer, girls tennis, boys and girls cross country and boys swimming and diving -- will attend the second annual Semoball Awards on Saturday, July 11, at the Bedell Performance Hall on Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

Among the athletes in attendance were Perryville's Luke Dobbelare, who was named the Soccer Player of the Year in 2014 and is a finalist in the same category for the second straight year after leading the Pirates to their first soccer state championship last season.

"It's like no other feeling," Dobbelare said about being a finalist for the second time. "I didn't expect to get nominated last year, and it was such a surprise when I won the thing. It's just great to be nominated again by the same people who nominated me last year. I mean, I felt like I did nothing, yet I've got all this recognition. And we have so many other people on our team that could've been nominated, so that makes it an even higher honor."

Dobbelare amassed 17 shutouts and 92 saves during his senior campaign with the Pirates.

Perryville finished with a near-perfect record of 29-1 and defeated Soldan International Studies 7-0 in the Class 2 state championship game in Blue Springs, Missouri.

"I always knew I wanted it to happen, but I never thought it would actually happen," Dobbelare said about helping his team to a state championship. "We went out on a high note, and the only other way that it could get better would be for me or one of my teammates to take home this trophy at the Semoball Awards. 29-1 is nearly perfect, and we couldn't be more proud of the season we put together."

Perryville senior captain and midfielder Luke Schlichting will join Dobbelare in the running for Boys Soccer Player of the year. Schlichting scored 17 goals and also had 28 assists, which is tied for most assists in the state.

"It's a great honor to know that I'm considered one of the best five players in Southeast Missouri for my sport," Schlichting said. "I want to give a shoutout to all my teammates because I couldn't have done it without them. But like I said, it's a great honor. It really means a lot, having all of these postseason awards coming my way."

Perryville junior Eann Bergman was also named a finalist. The forward scored a team-leading 27 goals and was a major part of Perryville's offense, along with many others, according to Schlichting.

"It helps a lot to not have just one or two guys that can score. When you're talking about us, you have to mention at least four or five guys that really get things rolling for us," Schlichting said. "Eann [Bergman], Kyle [Wood], Conner [Stark], Matthew Moran and Michael Volansky all scored a lot of big goals for us. We had some players that scored big goals. Maybe they didn't score a lot of goals, but we wouldn't have won games without those players putting in assists, goals and making the passes to get those."

Central's football team had its best season in school history, advancing to its first-ever Class 4 state championship game.

Four offensive and two defensive players from the Tigers' 12-win campaign were announced as football finalists.

"It shows that the hard work that those kids put in throughout the season as well as in the summers paid off for them," Central offensive coordinator Tim McGuire said about his team's Semoball Awards football finalists. "Yeah, we had a great season, but to show individual awards and feats for those guys is a great thing for them."

Among those finalists was Central's Al Young.

The junior wide receiver caught 28 passes for 638 yards and 13 touchdowns and also had 94 carries for 808 yards and 12 touchdowns.

"A lot of teams try to take him away, especially in the offensive passing game, but you have to think about him on the defensive side as well," McGuire said about Central junior Al Young. "He had eight interceptions, three special teams touchdowns as well as two defensive touchdowns. He had his 25 offensive touchdowns and had his second year in a row of going over 2,000 all-purpose yards. He's a hard person to contain. ... There are plenty of guys deserving of this award, and Al is definitely up there."

In the middle of the trenches, Central senior Jaylen Flye-Sadler caused plenty of mismatches.

The 6-foot-7, 310-pound offensive lineman helped the Tigers gain a total of 4,063 rushing yards on 602 attempts, good for 6.7 yards per carry, while also providing protection for quarterback Peyton Montgomery.

"Jaylen is a big, big man. He wanted every little bit of what he got this year," McGuire said about Flye-Sadler. "He worked hard, harder than anybody I've seen so far in the offseason. You got to think, last spring he had an ACL injury where he had to have surgery. So he came back early last season, and it wasn't totally right. But he worked hard again and came out with this great attitude. He's probably our best offensive linemen. He deserves everything he gets, and he had some fun with the signing day and everything else. He's a character, as most people know, but this is just a great thing for him to have. And he's earned it."

Flye-Sadler, who signed last week to continue playing football at Austin Peay, finished his senior season with 90 pancake blocks.

Other offensive finalists from Central include Montgomery, who threw for 1,200 yards and 18 touchdowns, and senior running back Braion Owens, who rushed for 1,678 yards and had 21 touchdowns.

Jackson seniors Dante Vandeven and Xominique Davis were also named offensive finalists for the Indians.

On the defensive side, Jackson's Josh Stone and Central's Deandre Banks and Jalen Reddin were voted as finalists amongst six other finalists from the area.

Notre Dame middle blocker Abbie McAlister secured her first finalist spot for Volleyball Player of the Year after finishing her junior season with 34 aces, 325 kills and a team-leading 37 blocks.

"Getting to know your setter really well gets you to put the ball where you want it to go," McAlister said. "So I just think working hard and doing the stuff that I really needed to do in practice really got me to where I needed to be as a player."

McAlister will face tough competition this coming July when she goes up against current Semoball Volleyball Player of the Year Caitlin Petty from Leoplold, who is also a finalist for the second straight year.

Other volleyball finalists include Perryville's Alex Spears and Brooke Hogard, as well as Jackson junior Autumn Reid.

"I think we're all really good, so it's really anybody. It's kind of out there and up in the air. Everybody who is nominated is definitely deserving," McAlister said.

Reigning Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year, Chelsea Drum was recognized as a finalist. Drum made her third consecutive trip to the Class 4 state meet, where she finished ninth with a time of 18:39. Joining Drum is teammate Carli Knott, a junior.

Two members of the Jackson boys cross country team were also named finalists in the Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year category, including senior Jack Jeffers, who finished 22nd in the class 4 state meet with a time of 16 minutes, 22 seconds. Junior Jackson Givens also received a finalist nod for the Indians, along with Notre Dame's Rudy McClellan, who finished 11th in Class 3 at 16:42.

Central's Brogan Davis headlined the boys swimming and diving finalists.

The freshman placed second in state in the 100-meter butterfly in 51.44 seconds, and picked up a fourth-place finish in the 100 backstroke in 52.07 seconds.

Davis' teammate Sam Hahs and Jackson's Austin Hobbs, Joey Janisse and Jack Gard rounded out the swimming finalists.

The winter sports finalists will be revealed during a selection show on Saturday, April 11, at Harry Blackwell Dodge in Dexter, Missouri, and spring sports finalists will be announced Saturday, June 13, at First Midwest Bank in Dexter.

Fans can nominate individuals for winter and spring awards online at semoball.com/awards. The panel of sports editors from semoball.com and broadcasters from SEMO ESPN Radio review the nominations and look at statistics for area athletes to pick the finalists for each of the awards. A male and female scholar athlete of the year and a Lifetime Achievement award will also be announced at the event. Scholar athlete finalists are selected by officials from each of the 57 high schools.

The speaker of the Semoball Awards will be announced during the first week in March. To order VIP tickets for the event, go to semoball.com/awards and click on the tickets tab at the top right corner of the page. At this time, a limited number of VIP tickets, which include preferred seating and a photo opportunity with the celebrity speaker at a pre-show reception, are available.

Semoball Awards finalists will receive an invitation in the mail to reserve a free ticket. Parents of finalists also will receive an invitation and information on how to purchase tickets. General admission tickets may be available later. Tickets will be mailed in June. Please print and keep the confirmation page after purchasing tickets.